Christmas

This home on Jackson St. is very well decorated with the Christmas lights. My favorite part is the tree. I think it is the most originally decorated tree in the city of Batavia.

Today's example is on Walnut St. and a great example of color and variety. 

Today's featured home is on Roosevelt Ave. in Batavia. I believed it was the one recognized by the jaycees earlier in the week.

Lots of variety and color. Well done.

This great example of Christmas lights is right on Route 5 as you leave Batavia heading towards Pembroke. There is a great variety of color. Well worth a look.

Today's home on Allen St. in Batavia caught my eye because of the unique contrast in colors. I think the purple trees to the left stand out and make this one of the more interesting houses in the city. They aren't always purple, as they change colors. I was just lucky enough to capture them when they were purple.

I'm also glad to see the jaycees submitted their winners. I may have to get out and check some of those out tonight.

Today's lights come from Woodcrest Drive in Batavia. I like the two snowmen in front of the trees, with the reindeer in the middle. Cool looking design.

 Today's example goes back to the ordinary home, after a couple of days with massive displays on large properties.

This home on Elm St. in Batavia may be modest in size, but takes full advantage of the given space with plenty of lights and decorations.

Today's Christmas light post is one I found on the ride out to Jim DiSalvo's property on Fargo road. 

This well decorated home is the first one you see when you turn off of Route 5 and onto Fargo. While it may not have the half million bulbs the showcase down the road does, this home has plenty of lights and characters. There is also speakers with Christmas music playing.

(I'm also taking suggestions if anybody has homes they would like to see featured on The Batavian)

"This is part of our Christmas tradition every year."

Those are the words Debbie Renteria yelled to Jim DiSalvo from her car window, as she drove her children around DiSalvo's Stafford property early Friday evening. You could see the smile, and sense of satisfaction on DiSalvo's face.

It is probably something he hears a hundred times a week during the Christmas season, and has for the last 14 years.

DiSalvo started decorating his enormous front yard with lights almost a decade and a half ago and it keeps growing every year.

"It's a lot of fun," said DiSalvo, who is the president of Applied Business Systems and manager of Team America Racing, where his son Jason is a star Superbike rider. "There is nothing I enjoy more than walking outside on a night like this and seeing the cars and the people."

DiSalvo's property is tucked away at 9180 Fargo Road in Stafford, just as you leave Batavia on Route 5, but once you make a sharp turn, you can't miss the decorations.

Almost every tree on the property has lights, there are over a half million bulbs in use and there are over 350 different lighted characters in the yard. Practically every tree has its own power outlet in the ground near it, there are over two miles of underground cable in use, there are an additional 500 extension cords in use and it takes four 200 AMP generators powering the show.

There is also two very large speakers and a 250 watt amp playing Christmas music that can be heard from the street.

DiSalvo has a full light crew that starts putting up the decorations the first week of December and finishes in mid-to-late November. The lights stay up until January 5.

The amount of people that visit Jim, and wife Connie's home is a number that DiSalvo couldn't even estimate. He says that on weekends the traffic is bumper-to-bumper.

"I like to sit in the front yard and watch (the people visit). It's non-stop," DiSalvo said.

The DiSalvo home must have more Christmas spirit than any other location in the area. Last week, the DiSalvos hosted over 300 Boy Scouts, Cub Scouts and Girl Scouts from the area for hot chocolate, cookies and a tour of the property.

 People often stop and leave gifts on DiSalvo's front porch, and he witnessed one of the most unique acts of the holiday season he has ever seen this past week.

DiSalvo noticed somebody dressed as Santa Claus sitting near a tree in the front yard, so he went to investigate.

"I asked him if he was really Santa," DiSalvo joked.

It turns out that the unidentified man has done this for a couple of years now. He sits in DiSalvo's winter wonderland dressed as Father Christmas with a bag of toys, waiting for his eight year old grandson. The child comes to check out the lights and gets to meet Santa, and receive gifts.

That was an experience that sums up why DiSalvo puts together the biggest display of area Christmas lights.

"It's all for the kids, really," DiSalvo said.

Here is a Flickr page with 23 photos of DiSalvo's Christmas lights, but it is advised that you take the short ride to Fargo Road to get the full effect.

The second house in our series of Christmas lights is located on North Spruce St. in Batavia. 

There isn't nearly as much volume as our first example from Thursday, but does a nice job of spreading out the displays over a large front yard, with great trim around the house itself.

For more photos from Christmas in the city, look here.

Every few weeks we stop by the Holland Land Office Museum and chat with Pat Weissend, the museum's director, about some artifact or other interesting something going on at the museum. This time, there was really only one thing to talk about: the Wonderland of Trees. From now until January 3, folks can head down to the museum—check out the Web site for hours—to tour the Wonderland and help raise funds for the museum.

Now, before we get to the video, we would like to ask your help. We've been finding a few problems with the videos uploaded to blip.tv—which is otherwise flawless, with great quality and a large viewing screen. Unfortunately, the videos seem to skip on some computers. Here, we've loaded our video with Pat into both YouTube (top) and blip.tv (bottom). Which looks and runs better for you?

Thanks to Don Burkel of the Batavia Business Improvement District for passing along this television commercial for Christmas in the City. It's got all the details about the big event coming up a week from Friday.

Please click here to download the complete schedule of events for this season's Christmas in the City celebration in downtown Batavia. Choristers, bands and other musicians will be touring downtown shops throughout the evening. Find out who will be where and when. Don't forget: the Batavia Concert Band and In Jest will be taking the stage in the Batavia City Centre.